Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search
options are on the right side and top of the page.

CILIC´IUM

CILIC´IUM (δέρρις), a
hair-cloth. The material of which the Greeks and Romans almost universally
made this kind of cloth, was the hair of goats. The Asiatics made it of
camel's-hair. Goats were bred for this purpose in the greatest abundance,
and with the longest hair, in Cilicia; and from this country the Latin name
of such cloth was derived. Lycia, Phrygia, Spain, and Libya also produced
the same article. The cloth obtained by spinning and weaving goat's-hair was
nearly black, and was used for the coarse habits which sailors and fishermen
wore, as it was the least subject to be destroyed by being wet; also for
horse-cloths, tents, sacks, and bags to hold workmen's tools (fabriliavasa), and for the purpose of covering
military engines and the walls and towns of besieged cities, so as to deaden
the force of the ram, and to preserve the woodwork from being set on fire.
(Aristot. H.A. 8.28; Aelian, 16.30; Varr. R.
R. 2.11; Verg. Georg. iii. 312; Liv. 38.7, 10; Plin. Nat. 8.203; Avien. Ora
Mar. 218-221; Veget. Ars Vet.i. 42; as ad j., vela,Dig. 33, 7, 12.17; udones,Mart. 14.140.)